Contributor: U.S. should help contain Ebola outbreak, not aggravate the crisis
Key takeaways
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- The virus, which can cause severe hemorrhaging, spreads through blood and other bodily fluids.
- This decision, intended to keep Ebola out of the United States, is more likely to undermine efforts to stop the outbreak.
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Ebola is a diabolical disease. The virus, which can cause severe hemorrhaging, spreads through blood and other bodily fluids. Patients, as they grow sicker, become a ticking bomb, endangering anyone compassionate enough to provide hands-on care. I saw it firsthand while responding to the two largest Ebola outbreaks in history with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014, I visited rural communities in Liberia, where local health workers — many working without pay for extended periods and without adequate protective equipment — risked everything to keep fellow citizens out of harm’s way.
Now, as another outbreak rages across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which has already become the third largest Ebola outbreak), the United States has embraced a radical new policy: closing the U.S. border to anyone potentially exposed to the virus, including American aid workers fighting the outbreak overseas. This decision, intended to keep Ebola out of the United States, is more likely to undermine efforts to stop the outbreak.